Selfridges is stocking an Iron Man jet suit for £340,000

An Iron Man-style jet suit has gone on sale for £340,000 at Selfridges.

The 3D-printed suit weighs 27kg and uses five kerosene-fuelled micro gas turbines, two attached to each arm and one at the back, and is controlled by body movement.

A world first, it was created by former desk-bound City worker Richard Browning, a real-life British version of Marvel’s Tony Stark. He drew an on-the-spot $650,000 investment from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who watched him take off last year.

In November he set a Guinness World Record flying at 32mph above a lake in Reading, but in theory the suit can go as fast as the human body can stand, about 180 mph. It uses four litres of fuel per minute. Fan Tom Cruise will have training next month, said Mr Browning, who is in talks with stunt co-ordinators for James Bond and Mission Impossible. The inventor also says he has a “really exciting” collaboration with the military.

Now nine wealthy buyers can claim a custom-made version and full flight training from Selfridges. A virtual reality version — using content captured on a real flight — is on offer for Londoners to test.

Bosse Myhr, menswear and technology director at the store, said: “The Jet Suit is the equivalent to the launch of the very first aeroplane. We are on the cusp of an era where aeronautical technology can finally be in the hands of the consumer and we are proud to be the first to offer this.” Mr Browning, 39, worked for BP in Canary Wharf for 16 years. When he began testing engines two years ago with help from a software engineer and volunteers, he initially saw the experiments — inspired by his engineer and inventor father — as a hobby.

Today he runs a multi-million-pound start-up, Gravity, from a former US military site in Salisbury and is on a “mission to re-imagine the future of manned flight”.

He said: “It started out as an exploration alongside a day job. We realised we were headed in a direction that had already been thought about — the Iron Man character. Part of what people find fun is I’m not a formally trained engineer, but I’ve always loved taking things apart and creating things.”

He said he had done a show in Spain where movie star Cruise was a guest. “He loved the horsepower and speed. We have a firm request from Mission Impossible and James Bond to look at it.”

The suit is in the SmartTech concession in the Technology Hall in Selfridges.